The energy ministry of the south Indian state of Karnataka has announced a 1.2GW ground-mount solar tender.

The Karnataka Renewable Energy Development (KREDL), am agency working under the state’s energy department, has issued a request for proposals for the capacity, which it wants to be implemented in 60 taluks - subdivisions of a district, such as a group of villages. The deadline for proposals is 2 December this year.

Proposed projects must be between 3MW to 20MW per taluk. Bidders can only submit one bid for each taluk.

Power purchase agreements will be signed with relevant utilities and vetted by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC). Developers will be responsible for design, finance, engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance of projects. The developer is also responsible for power evacuation from the power plant to the nearest substation or delivery point.

In related news the deadline approaches for a KREDL tender for consultancy services to help develop shared infrastructure for the 2GW Pavagada Solar Park, spread over 4,450 hectares, which has been funded by the World Bank. This includes environmental and social impact assessment and preparation of environment management and resettlement action plan. Final submissions are due on 27 November. The park will be split into eight blocks of 250MW with minimum project capacities of 50MW.

In August, the Karnataka government also introduced an exemption from the VAT tax for Solar panels and inverters.

At Intersolar India last week, SunEdison's record low bid of 4.63/kWh for 500MW of solar capacity in an Andhra Pradesh solar park was high on the agenda with much speculation about how low bids will go for the forthcoming solar park tenders in Rajasthan as well as Karnataka.

MNRE joint secretary Traun Kapoor also announced that India would be implementing three or four 'Solar Zones' and is likely to see capacity commissioned in what could be the world's largest solar projects in solar parks within India next year.